[Infections in the surgical management of pelvic ring fractures]

Infections that occur after the surgical management of pelvic fractures may involve potentially devastating complications. The broader approaches involving soft tissue dissection and a long operative time may increase the infection rate when compared with more conservative approaches. This incidence may be reduced with a better understanding of the approaches, lymph node sparing and antibiotic use. The purpose of this study is to assess the incidence and severity of local infections in a series of adult patients with pelvic ring lesions treated surgically.

This is a prospective observational descriptive study. A total of 49 patients operated on by a single surgeon from 2004 to 2008 were included.

Forty-four patients (90%) had no signs of infection during the treatment period. In the remaining 5 cases (10%), 5 episodes of infection were documented.

The identification of a local postoperative infection warrants an aggressive and urgent assessment of the patient. The devitalized tissue should be removed and empiric antibiotic therapy should be instituted after taking culture samples. A deep infection rate after pelvic fixation ranging from 0 to 10% has been published. The prevalence is higher among the surgical teams with less expertise. The incidence rate in our review was similar to the one reported in the literature.